Upholding People's Rights under the Constitution

Monday, June 29, 2015

What is the Problem?

So far there have been no National or
Liberal politicians supporting the petition for upholding workers’
constitutional rights to obey the laws at workplace. Apparently it has shown
this issue really tests politicians’ attitudes towards workers’ basic rights and
obligations under the Constitution. Similarly, the judges who have made
relevant decisions about Ms Zhang’s case have held the same attitudes that the
conservative politicians held.

Of course the unlawful dismissal law was first
introduced by the Labor government in 1988. When Labor was in power making the Fair Work Act 2009 and believing that what
happened to Ms Zhang should never happen again, Labor Attorney-General could
raise Ms Zhang’s case to the High Court and ask the High Court to outline
whether employees have to first complain about employers’ unlawful activities
to the court or tribunal to be protected by the unlawful termination law in
accordance with 170CK(2)(e) of the Workplace
Relation Act 1996, which is substantially
identical to 659(2)(e) of the Workplace Relation Act (Work Choices) Act
2005 and 772(1)(e) of the Fair Work Act 2009. (We should remember the High Court’s point was the
government did not raise any concerns about Ms Zhang’s case, when dismissing
the application of leave to appeal in relation to Ms Zhang’s case.) If Labor
government had done that, the judges in High Court and other courts would have
been more careful about workers’ rights when making decisions; therefore the
rule of law would be enforced not the rule of judges.

Unfortunately the leaders of Labor such as
Kevin Rudd and Julie Gillard did not hold the attitude that the majority of Labor
politicians has held. Both Kevin Rudd and Julie Gillard have shown that they
have focused on power struggles.

Obviously, when Labor leaders do not
respect the workers’ rights in their hearts, how can we expect the judges to
respect the rights of vulnerable workers? The Constitution gives the government power to intervene in important
cases to enforce the rule of law not the rule of judges.

Therefore the problem has been the judges’
and politicians’ attitudes towards workers’ rights. When attitude is wrong,
rule of law cannot be carried out because those people who hold wrong attitudes
are able to find ways to do thing not in accordance with the laws and
Constitution.